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One big disappointment I have in living in Melbourne is that the small Philippine consulate office here does not process passport renewals!

My passport is expiring in six months, and so I need to have it renewed immediately in case I would need to travel out of Australia.

I was given the option of either going to the embassy in Canberra or the consulate in Sydney. I opted for Sydney since there’s nothing to see in Canberra and I wanted to catch up with relatives and friends in Sydney.

So we went on a short trip to Sydney just for my passport renewal. Yes, we were able to squeeze in other things in this trip, but imagine how much we had to spend on top of the $108 renewal fee.. Airfare, hotel, train fares.. all sum up to a significant amount.

The good thing that came up from this trip, though, is that we were able to take a break from the chilly Melbourne temperature and experience the nice, less cold weather of Sydney. As of this writing, a good, not-so-cold climate has gone up the preference list for me and Law.. As it turns out, the cold, gloomy weather can really get depressing sometimes.. So the fact that we did not have to layer up so much and wear heavy coats when we were in Sydney was definitely an eye-opener for us!